Twenty is a Dream by Charlotte Nip

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An illustration of a person with dark hair and brown skin who is wearing a blue shirt, sitting on a wicker chair on a balcony, looking out at the sky, and holding a glass of wine.

ILLUSTRATION BY LAY HOON

Twenty is a Dream

Twenty half poems 

on crinkled receipts

a cross-stitch of words loose

memories bleeding

through the fine line

At twenty I go on cheap dates

pay for losing 

bits of myself 

to house-special wines

and the back of unkempt heads       

I take

hostage in backseats

and sunroofs staring

at foggy Vancouver

sighing

At twenty I meet Hugh Dancy 

in a bookstore         

 t          i       m        e            s     l     o    w   s 

with my birthday drinks

My twentieth summer rolls 

into London 

Big Ben looks a little grey

I breathe the same 

pollution as the Queen

At twenty I’m called a racial slur 

for the first time in Chinatown

I almost throw 

my Char Siu Bao across the street

sighing

I come home to ghosts 

under my bed 

vacuum the crumbs 

of ripped receipts

to make room for 

dreaming

Twenty is a dream; 

the sky is saltwater taffy; 

Aegean waves around my every

curve, and I float.

Charlotte Nip is a SFU Master of Publishing graduate and lifestyle marketing coordinator at Penguin Random House Canada. She is a diligent social media enthusiast, writer, and poet who has been published on SAD Mag, Ricepaper Magazine, and Thought Catalog. When she is not working, she likes taking the perfect Instagram shot and going through Vancouver to find it. Follow her daily adventures here on Instagram (@charlottenip).